The US House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a resolution to set up a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

The resolution was adopted by a vote of 222-190. All Democrats supported the formation of the special committee, joined by two Republicans, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.

The committee will be composed of eight members appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and five chosen by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

"It is right to be wary of an overtly partisan inquiry. But Congress is obligated to conduct a full investigation of the most serious attack on our Capitol since 1814," said Cheney, alluding to the British occupation of the federal legislature.

"Our nation, and the families of the brave law enforcement officers who were injured defending us or died following the attack, deserve answers. I believe this select committee is our only remaining option," she added in a statement.

On Jan. 6, when Congress convened to certify Electoral College votes of then-President-elect Joe Biden, a mob of former President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol building.

Ensuing clashes left five people dead. Two law enforcement officers took their lives in the aftermath of the raid.

Trump is accused of inciting the deadly violence./aa

As Canada prepares to commemorate its birth as a nation on July 1, it will be a bleak anniversary overshadowed by the chilling news that there are 1,148 unmarked graves discovered at the sites of three former Indian residential schools. 

In late May, 215 graves were found by the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc First Nation at the site of a former school at Kamloops, British Columbia (B.C.). The revelation prompted national outrage, as the news that residential schools - the first one opened in the 1820s - were forced onto First Nations with compulsory attendance by children. The idea was to instill white culture in the "savages."

In mid-June, 751 unmarked graves were discovered at the former Marieval residential school by the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan. The graves were once again proof of historic ill-treatment of Indigenous children - survivors told of malnutrition, beatings, and sexual abuse at two Catholic-Church run schools.

The Marieval finding stoked the outrage of Canadians to a higher pitch and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized on June 25 for Canada's historic deplorable treatment of First Nations people.

"To the members of the Cowessess community and Treaty Four communities, we are sorry," the prime minister said. "It was something that we cannot undo in the past, but we can pledge ourselves every day to fix it in the present and into the future." Treaty Four represents a historic treaty between Queen Victoria and some First Nation tribes.

But there was more horror to come.

On Wednesday, another revelation came out, this time from the Ktunaxa Nation (Lower Kootenay Band) that 182 shallow unmarked graves lay at the former St. Eugene's Mission Residential School near Cranbrook, B.C. Once again, the school, which operated from 1912 to the 1970s, was run by the Catholic Church.

The revelations have cast a pall over Canada Day. On Parliament Hill in the nation's capital of Ottawa, the red and white Maple Leaf flag of Canada will fly at half-mast, as it will in many communities across the country.

Canada is a nation reeling.

Bob Chamberlin, former vice president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, said Wednesday that more horrors await as other former residential schools are checked.

"I believe we are at the very tip of the iceberg," he said in a television interview.

There were 139 Indian residential schools operated across Canada and the country's first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, said the goal was to subvert the "savages" and turn them into copies of white European settlers. Those considered "savages" were the First Nations members, who originally populated the land, the Metis - of mixed Indigenous and European descent - and Inuit, inhabitants of the far north in Canada and historically known as Eskimos.

About 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit children went through the schools, taken from their parents by force if necessary. At least 4,000 died and, as in the case of the unmarked graves discovered to date, many of the children just disappeared with their parents left wondering what happened to them.

The schools were run by the United, Anglican, Presbyterian and Catholic churches. The first three issued formal apologies for their roles in the schools. But while local Catholic authorities said they were sorry, Trudeau and First Nations leaders called for Pope Francis to officially apologize. It is estimated that about 60% of the schools were operated by the Catholic Church.

However, the discovery of the graves may have signaled a change. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said Tuesday that Canadian Indigenous leaders will meet with the Pope before year's end, Dec. 17 and 20.

"Pope Francis is deeply committed to hearing directly from Indigenous Peoples, expressing his heartfelt closeness, addressing the impact of colonization and the role of the Church in the residential school system, in the hopes of responding to the suffering of Indigenous Peoples and the ongoing effects of intergenerational trauma," the CCCB said in a statement, Tuesday.

But Bobby Cameron, Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations chief, said in a media release Wednesday that the Catholic Church should also follow through with its promise to provide C$25 million financial compensation to First Nations residential school survivors. So far, only $34,650 has been raised./aa

International organizations called for greater availability in Africa of affordable and healthy food in a new report released on Wednesday

"Africa's agri-food systems must be transformed to make healthy diets more affordable for Africans," said a press release on the report, published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and the African Union Commission (AUC).

The release cited the latest Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition as finding that people on the continent face "some of the highest food costs when compared to other regions of a similar level of development."

According to the report, nutritious foods, including fruits, vegetables, and animal proteins, are relatively expensive when compared to staples such as cereals and starchy roots and, the report argues, some of the reasons for this are systemic.

Nearly three-quarters of the African population cannot afford a healthy diet of fruits, vegetables and animal proteins, and more than half cannot afford a nutrient-adequate diet, which provides a mix of carbohydrates, protein, fats, and essential vitamins and minerals to maintain basic health, it said.

"Even an energy-sufficient diet, which supplies a bare minimum of energy and little else, is out of reach for over 10 percent of the continent's population," it added.

In a separate press release by UNECA, the FAO's Regional Representative for Africa Abebe Haile-Gabriel was quoted as saying: "The picture that emerges is that the agri-food systems in Africa do not provide food at a cost that makes healthy diets affordable to the majority of the population, and this is reflected in the high disease burden associated with maternal and child malnutrition, high body-mass, micronutrient deficiencies and dietary risk factors."

Widespread stunting

The noted that Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world where the number of stunted children continues to rise.

"Although the prevalence of stunting is declining, it is falling only very slowly and despite progress, nearly a third of the children in sub-Saharan Africa are stunted," said the report.

Only three countries, Eswatini, Kenya and Sao Tome and Principe, are on course to meet four of the five World Health Assembly nutrition targets. Three other countries, Ghana, Lesotho and Rwanda, are on track to meet three of these targets, it indicated./aa

The most recently discovered Delta variant of the novel coronavirus is now listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a Variant of Concern (VOC), as global fears mount on the impact it may have on efforts to overcome the pandemic.

Though estimated to account for 90% of virus-related cases in the UK and India, where it first appeared, scientists are unable to determine exactly how many cases of the variant there are, since they cannot extract the DNA sequence of every COVID-19 case worldwide.

In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 10% of disease samples collected on June 5 matched the DNA of the Delta variant, which is more transmissible than previous strains. It is expected to become the dominant COVID-19 variant worldwide.

Just like other viruses, the coronavirus also changes over time. Though most of these do not bring fundamental shifts in the virus's characteristics, some, known as mutations, affect its transmissibility, resistance to vaccines, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention, scientists say.

Variant of Concern

WHO has so far identified four COVID-19 variants as VOCs, and eight others Variants of Interest (VOI).

According to the UN body, a variant is listed as a VOC if it is associated with an increase in transmissibility or detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology, an increase in virulence or change in clinical disease presentation, or a decrease in the effectiveness of public health and social measures or available diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics.

Tracking variants since January 2020, it has named the current VOCs after Greek letters, namely Alfa, Beta, Gamma and Delta, while VOIs are Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Teta, Lota, Kappa, and Lambda.

Alfa was first detected in the UK, Beta in South Africa, and Gamma in Brazil.

Delta variant

The Delta variant is blamed for the second major coronavirus wave in India that began earlier this year in March and saw daily case numbers rise to over 400,000.

Over the course of this wave, the daily number of infections in the country exceeded 50,000 on March 24, 100,000 on April 4, 200,000 on April 15, 300,000 on April 21, 400,000 on April 30.

Public Health England warned in its assessment in May that the rate of spread of the Delta variant was 51-67% higher than the Alpha variant of COVID-19.

The Delta variant was also found to be relatively more resistant to vaccines than other strains.

According to Public Health England, the first dose of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccines are 33% effective against it, while Pfizer-BioNTech was 88% effective after the second dose and AstraZeneca-Oxford 60% effective.

In previous clinical trials, both vaccines had over 90% success after the second dose against the Delta variant. They prevented hospitalizations in people by rates of 96% and 92%, respectively.

Potential global dominant

The highly contagious Delta variant is expected to become the dominant COVID-19 strain worldwide, the WHO said earlier this month.

According to the body's weekly update on the outbreak, the Delta variant has been detected in 96 countries as of Tuesday.

According to the international database Species Detection of Named Global Epidemic Lineages (PANGOLIN), the UK, where the DNA of 71,829 COVID-19 samples has matched the Delta variant as of June 29, is the country where the most cases have been confirmed.

It is followed by India with 6,724 confirmed cases, the US with 4,260, and Germany with 1,392.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Tuesday that 224 cases of the Delta variant have been identified in Turkey.

As countries' capacity to sequence DNA increases, the increase in Delta variant samples detected is interpreted as a sign that the variant is increasingly spreading around the world.

Delta plus

India's Health Ministry has also classified as a VOC a sub-lineage of the Delta variant that first appeared in Nepal in April and has been dubbed Delta plus.

Additional lineages called AY.1 and AY.2 are more transmissible, more capable of binding to lung cells, and more resistant to antibody treatment.

The variant has been detected in about 40 people in three states of India, while it spread to nine other countries, including the US, UK, Portugal, Switzerland, Japan, Poland, Russia, Nepal, and China.

Scientists stress that there is not enough data yet to assess the new mutation as a VOC./agencies

A new report Tuesday by the World Bank highlighted the grave effect of climate change on the Argentine economy - largely due to losses from floods and droughts.

According to the report, Impact of Climate Crisis on Poverty and the Argentine macroeconomy, floods and droughts have caused annual losses of between $500 million and $1.4 billion.

It found the average annual loss was $1 billion but that figure could increase "125% due to climate change” in the future.The report noted that climate events have widened inequality.

“An inevitable conclusion emerges from the report: facing climate change is not a long-term challenge, but an urgent measure given the fiscal impact, lost growth, and the costs to the most vulnerable households that already occur and are substantial,” said Jordan Schwartz , Director of the World Bank for Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. “Floods have been responsible for causing economic losses of about US $22.5 billion since 1980, as well as 58% of all economic losses caused by natural disasters between 1966 and 2015.”      

Julie Rozenberg, a senior economist at the World Bank said “floods generate“ welfare losses, “equivalent, in 2015 to a fall of between US$1,500 and US$3,900 million and have a direct impact on the poorest families, who are the least likely to recover when disasters strike, especially in the poorest provinces."

“Each year, as a result of floods, on average, 0.14% of the Argentine population falls into poverty, and in some provinces this impact can exceed 1.5% of its inhabitants after major floods. This means that citizens cannot maintain the purchasing power of their income,” is said in Spanish.

Entre Rios, a province northeast of Buenos Aires, had the highest average annual rate of poverty due to the effects of environmental disasters as a percentage of the population, followed by Chaco, Santiago del Estero, Buenos Aires and Corrientes.

The report established that “populations with little access to public services or who receive social assistance bear a disproportionately large burden of welfare losses caused by floods."

It also found that "beneficiaries of the Universal Child Allowance experience 40% fewer asset losses than the general population, but 25% higher welfare losses."

With Argentina deeply reliant on agriculture to drive its economy through tax revenue on agricultural exports, the report said the sector is "particularly vulnerable to climate change through droughts. Between 2010 and 2019, the agricultural sector represented 8.7% of GDP and an average 60% of the country's exports."

Argentina's severe drought at the beginning of 2018 "generated a 2.5% drop in GDP, along with the financial shock and the depreciation of the peso that occurred as of April of that year. The economic recession began in the second quarter, when agricultural production fell 32% annually due to the severe drought and, on the demand side, exports contracted more than 8% (also annually)."

/Previous droughts and the global financial crisis have previously affected export prices in Argentina./aa

Five more PKK terrorists surrendered in Turkey thanks to persuasion efforts by security forces, the Interior Ministry announced Wednesday.

In a statement, the ministry said the terrorists, who escaped from the terror group through persuasion efforts by police and gendarmerie teams, turned themselves in.

The terrorists had joined the PKK terror group between 199 and 2015 and were active in Turkey, Syria and Iraq, the statement added.

The number of terrorists who have surrendered through persuasion this year has now reached 94, it added.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and the EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants./aa

Five more PKK terrorists surrendered in Turkey thanks to persuasion efforts by security forces, the Interior Ministry announced Wednesday.

In a statement, the ministry said the terrorists, who escaped from the terror group through persuasion efforts by police and gendarmerie teams, turned themselves in.

The terrorists had joined the PKK terror group between 199 and 2015 and were active in Turkey, Syria and Iraq, the statement added.

The number of terrorists who have surrendered through persuasion this year has now reached 94, it added.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and the EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants./aa

The YPG/PKK terror group has tortured to death at least 67 people they have detained in Syria in the last five years, according to a report by a London-based rights watchdog Wednesday.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said among those tortured to death since 2016 were a child and two women.

At least eight people were killed as a result of torture by the terror group in the last six months, the report said, noting there was no information about the fate of at least 3,417 people held in YPG/PKK prisons.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot.

Syria has been in a civil war since early 2011 when the regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests.

Around half a million people have been killed and more than 12 million had to flee their homes, becoming refugees or internally displaced in the past decade./aa